Gettysburg's famed Little Round Top will be closed 12-18 months during project addressing erosion, parking, accessibility and more

Tree cutting this month at Little Round Top will kick off a larger rehabilitation project that will include a 12-18 month closure of the hill where Union forces fought off a furious Confederate assault, Gettysburg National Military Park announced Tuesday.

Park officials said they are addressing ongoing problems at the overcrowded site. They cited erosion, overwhelmed parking areas, poor accessibility and related safety hazards, and degraded vegetation.

Once rehabilitation efforts begin, all of Little Round Top will be closed for 12 to 18 months, the park said. Officials said Wednesday they were unable to provide details on the exact timing of the beginning of the closure, other than "later in Spring 22."

“This project will also enhance the visitor experience with improved interpretive signage, new accessible trail alignments, and gathering areas. These improvements will allow visitors to better immerse themselves into the historic landscape that is essential to understanding the three-day Battle of Gettysburg,” a news release said. 

A park page on the project says the aim is to “reestablish, preserve, and protect the features that make up this segment of the battlefield landscape.” 

Little Round Top seen from Plum Run Valley (Library of Congress)

Little Round Top and Sykes Avenue will be closed Feb. 9-11 and Feb. 14-16 for the cutting of up to 63 trees along both sides of the road. The park says the removal is necessary for the project.

The work is happening now so as not to interfere with the nesting and breeding of northern long-eared and Indiana bats that may roost in the area. “Both species of bat are on the federal endangered species list and the select tree cutting project must be completed before their anticipated arrival in early spring when nesting activities typically begin.”

Little Round Top is the location of some of the most famous fighting of the battle

Rising 164 feet above the Plum Run Valley to the west, the boulder-strewn hill became the anchor of the Union’s left flank and a focal point of Confederate attacks on the afternoon of July 2, 1863.  The 4^th,15^{th and 47th} Alabama regiments made a series of legendary assaults against the 20^th Maine, led by Col. Joshua Chamberlain (right).    

“The (Maine) regiment’s sudden, desperate bayonet charge blunted the Confederate assault on Little Round Top and has been credited with saving Major General George Gordon Meade’s Army of the Potomac, winning the Battle of Gettysburg and setting the South on a long, irreversible path to defeat,” according to the American BattlefieldTrust.